Tennessee Vols Get in a Brawl

Rhymes, right? A little? I tried. Anyway, “seven to 10” Tennessee Volunteer football players got into a brawlat Bar Knoxville in Knoxville Thursday night, according one of the bar’s owners. Actually, based on her account it doesn’t sound like it was much of a brawl. Her description makes it pretty clear that it was a bunch of football players beating down on some guy. Here’s co-owner Sandy Morton’s account of the incident, courtesy of the Chattnooga Times Free Press:

Basically, it was a normal Thursday night — Thursday’s our big night,” Morton said. “We had all the UT football players come in. They’re on a first-name basis with my husband (and co-owner), and they get VIP status, which means they pay no cover at the door. We’ve never had a problem with them in the past, but tonight, apparently they had a falling out with another gentleman. I don’t know why. I don’t know what happened, but several of the guys started beating up the other customer. I want to guess there was seven to 10 guys beating up this one gentleman.

“All the security then rushed in and were trying to break it up. My husband saw them picking up bar stools and starting to swing them. We got them out the door with security. There happened to be a friend of ours who was an off-duty police officer outside. He tried to help, and he ended up getting knocked out in the street and proceeded to be kicked while he was down on the ground in the middle of Cumberland.”

I don’t know about you, but I consider a “brawl” to be a bunch of people fighting each other. When one person gets beat up by up to 10 overgrown athletes, I call that “jumping” someone or “being jumped.” Just saying. Unless you’d like to count them knocking out an off-duty cop within the standards of a “brawl.” Perhaps they’re Miami Heat fans who became overexcited and this was their way of joining the celebration?

My guess is the Vols football team will be asked to stay away from this place from now on. One interesting thought raised by Deadspin is the issue of whether or not this could raise NCAA violation questions. Wouldn’t players regularly receiving VIP treatment and paying no cover at a local bar be considered “improper benefits?” Might be a reach but I’m sure it’s something they’ll have to look into.